Ten Years & Two Bites
by ChrissiHR
Summary: AU: Jake n Bells had been like peas n carrots since Bells was eighteen months old and Jake was still kicking like triplets in a butt-kicking contest in the womb every time Bells pressed her ear to Sarah's belly. When Bells tells Jake about her parents' divorce, six year old Jake takes drastic measures to keep his best friend close to his heart for the rest of their lives. M, lang.


**Pairing:** Jake n Bells

**Rating:** M, for strong language

**Genre:** Family/Fluff/Romance

**Prompt:** "Love Bites" by Def Leppard

**Word Count:** Yeah … um … Can we just all agree that I need more practice at this brevity thing? This was supposed to be a drabble. It's not. Not even close. Le sigh.

This one-shot was previewed in my wolf pack omnibus under the title, "Ten Years & Two Bites".

**A/N:** _Let's just pretend Jake was 16 and Bella was 17/almost 18 when she moved back to Forks, m'kay? ;)_

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**Ten Years and Two Bites**

* * *

Jake n Bells, ages 6 and 7 ½

Jake n Bells sat on his back stoop, eating a pair of juicy peaches his mama bought at the market. Well, three peaches, technically, because Jake ate enough for two six year olds, easy.

But he _did_ offer to share his with Bells. Jake would give her the shirt off his back, the pillow off his bed, or the little stuffed red wolf named Russell that he'd had since he was born.

Jake loved Bells more than food, and that was really saying something.

Bells ate her peach efficiently, nibbling daintily around the pit and neatly removing all the sweet yellow fruit before moving on to the next bite.

Meanwhile, Jake gobbled his like it was the last fresh peach on earth and zombies were about to storm the yard and eat his brain before he could finish it.

Jake did everything like it was his last moment on earth. Bells didn't know anyone else who could squeeze the happy out of every waking moment like Jake could. He was born happy and busy. He never stopped moving or fiddling or thinking about something.

Bells, on the other hand, was quiet and thoughtful and did everything with a quiet deliberation.

At seven and half, she had already chosen which college she would attend (University of Washington so she and Jake could go together), what she would do when she grew up (a librarian at the school on the rez), and where she would live (in the house next door to Jake). They spit and shook on it two weeks earlier when she told him her plan for the rest of her life after she informed him sadly about her parents' divorce and having to go back to live with her mom at the end of summer.

Jake had gnawed the sweet flesh thoroughly, if not efficiently, off of both of his peaches. The juice was running down his chin when he tilted his head, looking at her funny.

"Bells?" he asked.

"What's up, Jake?" she smacked her lips delicately and set her peach pit carefully on the step beside her where it wouldn't stain Jake's new shorts.

"If you move to Phoenix, will you live there forever?" his lip wobbled and Bells had to remind herself that he was only six and his parents still lived together.

Bells didn't think they had much longer, though. They fought all the time about the twins.

Loud fights, too, just like when her parents fought over her before they decided to not live together.

"No, I'll get to come visit Daddy every summer and most of the holidays from school. The judge said so. And it won't be forever. I have to come back to go to college with you and live next door and be a librarian. I can't do that in Phoenix," she tried to ease his worry, leaning into his shoulder to nudge him into giving her one of his biggest, bestest hugs.

She knew what he was thinking.

"Will you marry me, Bells?"

_Or maybe not._

"Jake … I told you, I'm never getting married. It's a stupid piece of paper, then parents kiss, and they're married, but it doesn't mean anything because one day, parents can just say to the judge that they want to not be married and there's another paper and lawyers and then they're not. It's just paper and kisses and lawyers."

Her teeth and fists were clenched and she was so angry that adults made it so easy to not be a family anymore.

When you were a family, it should be forever.

"We don't have to be married with lawlers or papers _or_ kisses. _Yuck._ We could spit on it and shake," that sounded like a better deal to Jake.

Kissing was definitely _out_.

"Jake, we're not old enough to get married…" she didn't want to hurt him, but being married made parents angry and then people had to move to Phoenix because of divorce and lawyers.

She never wanted to have to move away from Jake.

She told him so.

"You could stay here with me," he said, his voice small and worried.

When his lip quivered, Bells was a goner. "Oh, Jake. I wish I could, but I can't even live here on the rez until I'm grown up and get a job. You have to be Quileute or work on the rez to get permission to live here."

"Or marry someone who's Quileute! _LIKE ME!_" Jake crossed his arms.

He looked so angry.

Bells had never seen him angry.

"There has to be another way, Jake."

He thought carefully about all the things he knew about living on the rez and being Quileute.

His eyes lit up and he patted her shoulder, "Wait right here, Bells!" Then he ran inside, leaving a very confused Bells behind.

Ten minutes later, she was picking peach stuff out of her teeth and had all but forgotten about their conversation when Jake came running out of the house.

"Bells! I got it! I know what to do!" Jake hissed excitedly. "But you can't tell my daddy I told. It's a bridal secret-"

"Tribal secret," she interrupted automatically.

"Right, that's what I said," he shook his head. _Girls._

"Daddy said a legend about my Gran-pop Ephraim. He never had any papers or lawlers when he met my Gran-mom Mara. Maybe kisses, but I don't know. Daddy laughed when I aksed. But him and Gran-mom got to be together forever and he always knew if she was okay and where she was because of magic. He put his mouf on her neck and the wolf in him knew what to do. Then it was magic because he loved her."

Bells frowned, "How old were they?"

"Daddy said Gran-pop was sixteen and Gran-mom was fourteen and they were just kids. That's why there was no papers or lawlers or kisses. Just magic."

"Do you have a wolf?" Bells was fascinated. She had never heard of that legend before.

"Daddy says I do," Jake nodded solemnly.

"So, you just have to put your mouth on my neck and then you'll be happy?" Bells thought that sounded too good to be true.

"And you'll be a member of the tribe," he promised. "And we'll always be able to know things about each other and when we grow up, there won't have to be any papers or kisses or lawlers and you can come live with me forever."

That sounded really good to Bells, but she wasn't ruling out kissing. She might like to kiss someone when she was grown up.

She told Jake as much.

He scrunched up his face. Bells drove a hard bargain.

"Fine," he agreed, spitting into his hand and holding it out to shake.

Bells smiled at him in the sneaky way that Jake knew meant trouble. Then she pushed aside his hand, closed her eyes, and kissed his cheek.

Jake was about to complain when he suddenly felt really weird and hot. His vision got blurry and he heard voices chanting and drums like at the bonfires they had on the beach every month.

He leaned in to whisper in Bells's ear, "Do you hear that?", but his lips brushed her cheek instead even though he didn't mean to and he got hotter all over.

He was burning up!

Her voice sounded like angels to him when she nuzzled him like she did when she helped him take his naps when he was four, whispering against his cheek, "Jake."

That was when the future Alpha-Chief Jacob Black felt his wolf rise to the surface for the first time and he knew just what to do to keep his Bells close to his heart for the rest of their lives. Opening his mouth, he laid it gently over the skin on her throat just like in the legends, murmuring against her skin, "Bells."

* * *

Jake n Bells, ages 16 and 17 (almost 18)

"Bells!" a voice called from the parking lot, catching Bella's attention and lifting a weight from her heart. She'd know that voice anywhere.

It was her first day of school in Forks and her last year of high school. Whatever possessed her to move home to live with her dad after her junior year, she was just glad she'd moved at the beginning of the summer so she had time to catch up with her old friends down on the rez.

Especially Jake.

They'd been Jake n Bells, like peas n carrots, since Bells was eighteen months old and Jake was still kicking like triplets in a butt-kicking contest in the womb every time Bells pressed her ear to Sarah's belly, according to his dad.

While she was thinking about old times, the owner of the voice that lifted her spirits and made her heart light once more had finally caught up to her. A warm hand grabbed hers and another slid under the strap of her backpack-a silent request to lighten her load.

Handing the bag off gratefully, she stood on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek in an old, familiar way and whisper, "I'm so glad you're here. I met one of those Cullen kids you warned me about today."

His nostrils flared and his eyes flashed gold, his wolf rising to the surface to scent his Bells to make sure she was okay.

"Relax," she petted his rumbling chest, soothing him gently as she continued quietly for his ears only. "He bitched the whole time he sat next to me in Bio about being paired up with one of the Quileute kids' chew toys and that I stank like wet dog. He mumbled something about Alice being all wrong about me-_like I know who Alice is_…? He couldn't skip out of there fast enough when class ended."

Jake grinned, delighted, and the wolf receded as he wrapped his arms around her, warm lips nibbling gently on a large pair of new crescent-shaped scars placed a little higher, but slightly overlapping a much tinier pair of scars on Bella's throat.

He chuckled to himself gleefully, looking across the parking lot at the coppertop, constipated-looking motherfucker standing by a shiny new Volvo who was hissing hatefully at him.

He growled, the voice of past chieftains resonating in the low rumble, startling the bloodsucker, "Didn't care for her love bites, huh, leech?"

* * *

**E/N:** _Dear Autocorrect, Deadwood Sullen drives a Volvo, not a vulva. Thanks for nothing._

_Leave me some love, folks. My other one-shot "How do I love thee?" is hardly getting any love this week. Sad face._


End file.
